Why Should People Be Concerned?
Many parents worry about their child's mental and physical wellbeing. If students are overwhelmed and can't focus, then they are not going to be able to perform to the best of their abilities in both academics and extracurricular activities. This is the case when AP and college students don't meet with their teachers every day and have their other core and elective classes on top of extra curricular activities to worry about. If students don't fully finish, focus and understand the AP or college course material, then they will lose their chances of doing well on the national exam and might not get the college credit.
Many involved students who are in college and AP classes have a lot to handle, and when that student has eight classes to work on along with their extracurriculars, it can be very stressful and draining on the student both mentally and physically. One recent graduate of AAHS expressed that he spent at least 2.5-3 hours of college and AP homework a night and when his entire day was not devoted to school or activities it was devoted to homework.
The AP US History teacher at AAHS noted that out of the eleven years that he has taught AP U.S. History, 2016 was the first year that two students got a 1 on the AP U.S. History exam. The AP Biology teacher at AAHS remarked that surprisingly the scores from her students in the past two years haven't decreased but stayed consistent. However, she thinks that students are having to study more outside of classes in order to stay up to date with all of the course material.
